Second World Novel

“That’s right! Goddess Serenity did mention giving this kingdom her blessing,” Peniel said. “We are very lucky she did that. This will help cut down your work in keeping this kingdom stable.”

“Hehe, I know my big sister won’t let me down,” Jack said. He moved his head away just as Peniel’s hand came slapping again.

Missing the slap, Peniel grumbled about how Jack called the Goddess his big sister.

Jack was already moving to the next screen. It was marked with the title, Officers Overview.

The main page showed that there were 526 active officers with an allowable maximum of 569 officers. The 569 maximum was divided into 251 for court officials and 318 for military officials.

“These are the senior-level officers whom you are entitled to appoint or discharge,” Peniel explained. “The 526 active officers from the maximum allowable of 569 meant there are 43 vacant spots at the moment. Go into its details so you can get a clearer picture.”

Jack complied. When he opened the military section first. The top row had three boxes. Two had portraits in them, one was empty. The two portraits were people he knew, Emris and Meryl. The row was marked with the words, Lord Marshall.

“I guess this third box used to be filled by Arther Pendrake,” Jack said. Arther Pendrake was the lord marshall who quit his post after Therribus lost in the civil war.

“So, I can appoint anyone to fill this empty post?” Jack asked.

“Not that simple,” Peniel answered. “There is a restriction for each rank. Lord Marshall being the top rank requires the highest restrictions. Lower ranks have lesser restrictions. You can check their restrictions by clicking the empty portrait.”

Jack did so. The requirements soon showed themselves. To be appointed as a Lord Marshall, someone would need to be at least level 70, mythical grade, and have leadership and discipline stats of at least 80 points.

“Leadership and discipline stats?” Jack asked after reading.

“It’s the officer stats. Now try clicking the box with a portrait,” Peniel suggested.

Jack chose Emris’ portrait. Detailed information soon appeared. A brief history of Emris was shown. It depicted that Emris came from a declining noble family which was later ransacked by bandits. He lost everyone except her mother, who then brought her to the Circle of Magi. Her mother left him with the mages there. Because despite surviving, her mother also suffered a fatal wound. Her mother passed soon after.

Emris studied inside the Circle of Magi until he became a powerful mage. Yet, instead of continuing to serve the Circle of Magi, Emris chose to leave the faction and joined the kingdom. He quickly climbed up the rank with his prowess. With his rank, he finally tracked down the bandits who had murdered his family and exacted his revenge. From then on, he vowed to protect this kingdom from any bandits or foreign enemies and spare anyone else from suffering his same childhood tragedy.

“Oh… I didn’t know that old man has such a sad backstory,” Jack commented. He looked down and saw the other details from Emris.𝐧𝗈𝒱ℯ𝔩𝒩𝑬xt.𝒞𝗈𝐦

The info listed Emris’ level and grade, which Jack already knew. It also listed his HP, MP, and the six attributes similar to players. Below them was another set of data. They were loyalty, leadership, discipline, wit, politics, and traits. Besides loyalty was number 76.

“Um… Peniel. Does this loyalty stat mean…”

Peniel answered before Jack finished his question, “Yes, that indicates his loyalty to the king, you!”

“Uh… It’s 76 good?”

“The maximum is 100, which means he is utterly loyal to you. Officers will start to consider quitting or defecting if their loyalty is 60 or below.”

“Oh… So, not too good,” Jack said.

“Yeah, I will say it’s average. I will say he just considers it his duty to obey you as his king. he didn’t truly have any opinion on you personally.”

“Hm… Hey, are those what I think they are?” Jack pointed to a series of buttons beside the loyalty number. They had words on them. Pay, gift, summon, promote, demote, and discharge. He was pointing to the ones marked with pay and gift.

“Yeah. That is if you want to give him coins or a valuable item. It will increase his loyalty points,” Peniel answered, understanding Jack’s meaning.

“Great! Let’s give him some coins to increase his loyalty! The guy is a level 85 mythical, after all. I will want him on my good side… But by paying, I assume I use the kingdom coffer. Not my own coins, right?”

“Yes, paying an officer will use the coins from the kingdom coffer. But you can pay him later. There is a mass pay function where you give coins to all or multiple selected officers at once. It is faster rather than paying them one by one.”

“Oh, I see. Okay,” Jack said and studied Emris’ other data. He had 86 for leadership, 93 for discipline, 81 for wit, and 66 for politics.

“Those four also have the maximum point at 100,” Peniel explained.

Studying these four stats, Jack understood that they were different from attributes. While attributes indicated one’s prowess in combat, these four stats reflected one’s social capacity. Officers with leadership and discipline excelled in military service. Leadership showed how well one led another, while discipline showed how well one carried out an order. As for wit and politics, they were more suited for court officers.

Jack scrolled down. There were lots of officers. A few he recognized. Most, he didn’t. The ranks that were visible to him were lord marshall, having three spots. Lord commander, ten spots. Knight Commander, twenty-five spots. One of the Knight Commander’s spots was empty. That empty one must be one that used to be occupied by Quintus’ portrait. Sadness returned when Jack was reminded of that knight commander.

Knight captain had eighty spots. The last, knight lieutenant, had two hundred spots. Plenty of empty portraits in these two ranks.

“I understand there should be more military ranks below knight lieutenant, right?” Jack asked.

“There are,” Thaergood confirmed. “But Your Majesty needed not to bother about those lower ranks. They were appointed by the upper ranks in this list.”

Jack nodded. It won’t be practical if he was to be in charge of selecting every single officer in this kingdom.